It was a tough first day of competition for our Florida guys in the US Lacrosse U15 National Championships. In the first round of play the Florida Swashbucklers found some success thanks to a  game winning goal by Brandon Ruditz with only ten seconds remaining on the clock. They topped Brady’s Bunch, a team made up of kids mostly from California but they do have Timber Creek’s rising young star, Nate Gillan, on the roster.

Team Florida Carolina looked strong against against the Long Island Express Piranhas as Jared Bernhardt scored twice early.  Unfortunately they could not hold on and lost by a goal on a shot with only 39 seconds left on the clock. Palm Beach Storm looked to be fully in control of the Long Island Jesters as they were up 4-2 midway through the second half.  But the Jesters were able to reel off four unanswered goals to finish the game and delivered a 6-4 defeat to the Storm. Team Florida Navy, a group of solid but young players, lost to New Jersey Northeast 12-2.

In the second round of games Team Florida Carolina lost to Dukes HHH by a score of 10-2 and the Florida Swash ran into the Long Island Express Turtles.  If you have not seen the Tenacious Turtles play, you should.  They are very good at all age groups.  The Swash played hard but lost 14-2 to the team we think may win the whole thing (Although FCA was plowing through the competition today as well.)  The Storm found their footing and ran over the Colorado 14ers 9-1. In the third round of games Team Florida Carolina dropped another close one losing to Utah 7-6, the Swash lost to C2C 8-5, the Storm lost to the Next Level 8-5, and Team Florida Navy lost to  Colorado 9-2. The Storm are the number 12 seed going into tomorrow going 1-2 on the day and giving up 15 goals.  The Swash are 19th seed also going 1-2 with 30 goals against.  Team Florida Carolina ended up with the 21st seed and Team Florida Navy is the 24th seed.  Both teams were 0-3 today.